Traveler

In his reviews of Andy Snitzer's first two albums, Ties That Bind (1994) and In the Eye of the Storm (1996), All Music Guide's Jonathan Widran made a point of citing the similarity of the young saxophonist's playing to that of David Sanborn. In 2011, 15 years later, Widran has written the liner notes for Snitzer's seventh album, Traveler, which might indicate the critic has come around or that the artist has developed over time. The latter proves to be the case. Certainly, no one would think of Sanborn while listening to Traveler, an engaging if unchallenging contemporary jazz effort. There's none of Sanborn's furious honking here. Instead, Snitzer, who is also responsible for synthesizer, electric piano, and rhythm programming, sets up percolating backing tracks and then solos over them in a smooth fashion. The album title and song titles like "Marseille," "Bohemia," and "Lausanne" might suggest a trip around the world (with "Earth from Above" coming in from the space shuttle), but it doesn't sound like Snitzer ever left the luxury hotels if he did jaunt around in search of inspiration. He is challenged by fellow musicians, notably a muted Chris Botti on "Mystique," and his playing always displays more ideas that the usual contemporary jazz noodling. But Traveler doesn't really sound like it taxed him too much to construct; at least when he was channeling Sanborn he was more assertive.